Library East Wing sortiment ... a restart

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A work in progress ... since January 2017

This subforum of our forum had shown all signs of "not being used" in the last years ... see ...

viewtopic.php?f=11&p=18435#p18435
The Library (West Wing), (1 page)
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1. 15 threads: 25906+195

The Library (East Wing), (1 page)
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1. 25 threads: 18353+2060

Library (North Aisle), (1 page)
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1. 20 threads: 12096+1832

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Library-West: last post in 2013
Library-East: last post 2015
Library North: last post in 2013
I give the view of the state of the subforum at 1.1.2017 ...

Sorted according date of the post ...
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Sorted according number of Views
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The original aim of this subforum was to collect here sources about Tarot and Playing cards ... as the title shows:

"The Library (East Wing)
Tarot History related Books and Articles."


We've noted a lot of Tarot History Books and Articles at other places, but usually nobody thought of adding a link to this place.
So that's a longer work to do, and it will not be done in one step. This post will be replaced finally by that, what will be the result of the work.
This thread can be used to add suggestions to the running work. Or points or works, which are suggested.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Library East Wing sortiment ... a restart

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My own first suggestion is to look for already known possible sources ... as there is:

Bibliography of Playing-Card Books ... from the IPCS
http://www.i-p-c-s.org/faq/books.php
This is gigantic ... but naturally we're not interested in all playing card themes.

Further there is the list of publications by IPCS ...
http://www.i-p-c-s.org/publications.html
This is also very much ...

Of special interest are naturally books, which are available in the web ... either full or in parts or as snippet view.
For this we have earlier collections arranged by ourselves or single notes distributed in various articles.

We have Franco Pratesi's and Andrea Vitali's article to sort, we have own articles in Forums and we've own webpages.

That all is rather much. Much more difficult than the Web link enterprise.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

mikeh's list of books as of Jan. 2, 2017

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Revised Jan. 4, adding one item at the bottom and a few more comments on the usefulness of the books mentioned.

Yes, good idea, Huck, especially since many of the books and articles are online, one place or another. I suppose those count as websites, but I will consider them books and articles.

We will all have different ideas about what is worth putting in such a list. So I am reserving this space for my list, which I will update as I can, from my posts. I am for the moment dealing only with books, putting them in chronological order, but in 3 categories, with links, as the books themselves are largely unobtainable except when online. I am only listing ones l have personally examined, in one form or other. I am mostly including books from 1966 and after, except that I have a historical section of major esoteric tarot original works since 1770, because I have done a lot with the ones I list.

Jan. 2, 2017:

Books in English:

Moakley, Gertrude, The Tarot cards painted by Bonifacio Bembo, 1966. I would call this book the beginning of the scientific approach to the tarot. Available in libraries. These days it's more of a reference work than anything else.

Dieter Hoffman, The Playing Card: an illustrated history, 1972. Translated from German. Not hard to find.

Brian Innes, The Tarot: How to use and interpret the cards, 1977. Actually a good introduction to the history of the 22 "major arcana", including the occultists' decks, profusely illustrated, with divination amounting to only about a quarter of its 88 pages.

Kaplan, Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. 1, 1978 and 2, 1986, are essential purchases. Vol. 4 has occasionally some material that he didn't find earlier, but it is hardly worth buying the book for. The other two I look at constantly. Available in libraries, and frequently for sale somewhere.

Game of Tarot, by Michael Dummett, 1980. Unobtainable except from libraries. The seminal work on the tarot from a scientific perspective. These days, it's mostly a reference work, but something you have to read on a particular issue if you want to think it through. Someone should put it on the Web.

John Shephard, The Tarot Trumps: Cosmos in Miniature, the Structure and Symbolism of the Twenty-Two Tarot Trump Cards, 1980. Available cheaply. A forgotten classic, in my view not in the least outmoded.

Robert Wang, The Qabalistic Tarot, a Textbook of Mystical Philosophy, 1983, online at https://archive.org/details/RobertWang- ... Tarot-1983. This is supposedly the best introduction to the Golden Dawn tradition of tarot interpretation. It certainly is on a different level from Decker and Dummett's Occult Tarot (see below).

Michael Dummett, The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards, 1986. Excellent introduction, images, and comments. But not essential to have.

Robert O'Neill, Tarot Symbolism, 1986. Another forgotten classic, somewhat useless these days. Available from J.-M David's Association for Tarot Studies.

Stephen R. Franklin, Origins of the Tarot Deck: a study of the Astronomical Substructure of Game and Divining Boards, 1988. Snippets are online. In the Bidev et al tradition. In my local library, quite forgotten about even by me. Surely not worth reading.

Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis, and Michael Dummett, A Wicked Pack of Cards, 1996. Snippets at https://books.google.com/books?id=MG6DA ... 0Q6AEIKDAC Invaluable for the history of the occult tarot 1770-1870.

Ronald Decker and Michael Dummett, A History of The Occult Tarot 1870-1970, 2002. Snippets at https://books.google.com/books?id=0YB-A ... 0Q6AEIIjAB. This is meant as a continuation of Wicked Pack of Cards. I haven't found it very useful. You'd hardly guess, except for some names, that it covers much the same people as Wang's book.

Tiberio Gonnard and Giordano Berti, The Visconti Tarot, Scarabeo, 2002. Berti just wrote the introduction. Translation from Italian. Claims to be about cartomancy, but the short cartomantic interpretations are standard occultist views and have little to do with the very detailed and valuable analysis of the symbolism in the details of the PMB cards.

Michael Dummett and John McLeod, A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack: the Game of Triumphs, vol. 1 and vol. 2, 2004. Vol. 1 is available in U.S. libraries. I don't know vol. 2. For specialists only.

Paul Huson, Mystical origins of the tarot, from ancient roots to modern usage, 2004. Generous selections online at https://books.google.com/books?id=D3JnAwAAQBAJ. Good job relating Etteilla's word-lists to those of the Golden Dawn. The first 50 pages or so are online, then selected pages (discussion of Golden Dawn omitted). Accurate, readable, one of the best introductions currently in English, although you wouldn't guess that from the title.

Robert Place, The Tarot: History, Symbolism, Divination, 2005. Historical part online at https://books.google.com/books?id=jQdGi ... &q&f=false. Tries to be historical and reflects current thinking, but not very careful about historical details. If he doesn't give a good footnote, don't trust him. If he does, read the source, as he doesn't always get it right. His latest book, Tarot and Alchemy, is worse. His idea of alchemy is that it is a set of pretty pictures worth associating to the occult tarot. Needless to say, he is very popular. He does have interesting intuitions.

Alain Bougearel, Franco Cardini, and Andrea Vitali, coordinators: The Caravan of Tarot: Tarots - History-Art-Magic. Online at http://www.letarot.it/cgi-bin/pages/mos ... nglese.pdf. Also in print. For Italian and French version links, see those sections. Unclear when it was published. The title page says 1995--an exhibition then-- but the back page has 2006. It's pretty good.

Ross Sinclair Caldwell, Thierry Depaulis, and Marco Ponzi, Explaining the Tarot: Two Italian Renaissance Essays on the Making of the Tarot Pack, 2010. The Discorso by Piscina is online, but not the Anonymous, almost as indispensable. Both are 1560s Italy, essential works.

Ronald Decker, The Esoteric Tarot: Ancient Sources Rediscovered in Hermeticism and Tarot, 2013. Useful selections online at https://books.google.com/books?id=qW11T ... ot&f=false. The presentation is eccentric, but he has sources found nowhere else. There is a thread discussing him, often antagonistically, at viewtopic.php?f=12&t=971&hilit=decker+esoteric#p14134 There is also my blog at http://4essaysstimulated.blogspot.com/, more sympathetic, with many quotes. Worth having if you are interested in the subject as defined in the title.


Books in French:

Depaulis, Tarot, Jeu, et Magie, 1984, exhibition catalog, for sale in color for $100, but digitalized in full black and white by the Bibliotheque Nationale at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6532698n.

Bougearel. Cardini, Vitali, coordinnateurs, La Caravane du tarot: Tarot histoire-arte-magie, http://www.letarot.it/cgi-bin/pages/mos ... r_sito.pdf. Also in print. For links to the English and Italian versions, see those sections.

Depaulis, Le Tarot Révélé, 2013. Undoubtedly the most up to date and accurate short introduction to tarot history now available. There remain some glaringly unjustified statements--of which Franco Pratesi's work in 2016 has looked at some issues in his chapter 1. The book has summaries in English and German, of use to someone who wants it in a 5 page nutshell.

Books in Italian:

Dummett, Il Mondo e l'Angelo, 1993. Condensed and updated version of Game of Tarot. Hard to get. See my blog at http://dummettsmondo.blogspot.com/2015/.html for transcriptions and translations.

Andrea Vitali and Terry Zanetti, Il Tarocchino di Bologna: Storia, Iconographia, Divinizationedal XV al XX secolo, 2005. The only book I know on the subject, well presented, earning a favorable review by Dummett for Vitali's contribution. Zanetti's essay on cartomancy is good, too, I think.

Bougearel, Cardini, and Vitali, coordinatori, La Carovana dei Tarocchi - Tarocchi - Storia - Arte - Magia, http://www.associazioneletarot.it/cgi-b ... aliano.pdf. Also in print. For links to English and French versions, see those sections.

Vitali, ed. Il Castello dei Tarocchi, 2010. 19 essays by 12 authors, many known on THF, all in Italian.

Sandrina Bandera and Marco Tanzi “Quelle carte de triumphi che se fanno a Cremona”: I Tarocchi dei Bembo, 2013. Exhibition catalog with latest opinions on Brera-Brambilla, Pierpont-Morgan-Bergamo, and occasionally even the Cary-Yale. Some excerpts, with my translations, and pictures from the book at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1058&hilit=Bandera.

Laura Paola Gnaccolini, ed., Il segreto dei segreti: i tarocchi Sola Busca e la cultura ermetico-alchemica tra Marche e Veneto alla fine del Quattrocento, 2012. For translations and some remarks by me, see http://newmaterialsolabusca.blogspot.com/. For discussion by THF participants, see the thread viewtopic.php?f=11&t=988&p=15884&hilit= ... ini#p14716


Esoteric works on the tarot, mostly by its historic practitioners.

Etteilla, ou manière de se récréer avec un jeu de cartes par M***. 1773 second edition of French original online in Gallica. https://books.google.com/books?id=CI85A ... alse.There is supposedly a translation into English by Caitlin Matthews, which you can get as part of a course on the Petit Etteilla, which is what this book gives a cartomantic--pardon, cartonomantic--system for. I once saw the course advertised but can't find it currently. He later expanded this system to include the tarot.

Court de Gebelin, "Concerning the game of tarots", and De Mellet, "Research on the Tarots, and the Divination by the Cards of the Tarot". De Gebelin's essay in French is at http://www.tarock.info/gebelin.htm and in English, translated by David Tyson, at http://priory-of-sion.com/biblios/links/gebelin.pdf. The de Mellet original and translation is at http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Recherch ... les_Tarots. There is a print translation with extensive historical notes by J. Karlin, in Rhapsodies of the Bizarre, 2002. Karlin's idea of history tends to mean 1781 and after.

Etteilla, Manière de se récréer avec le jeu de cartes nommées tarots, Pour servir de premier Cahier a cet ouvrage, 1783, in French at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6 ... .f1.langEN.

Etteilla, How to amuse oneself with the deck cards named tarot, Serving as the second Cahier of this Work, c. 1785. Selections transcribed and translated by me at http://etteillastrumps.blogspot.com/ (but not the posts ending "...in the Etteilla tradition", which are something else.

Etteilla, How to amuse oneself with the deck cards named tarot, Serving as the third Cahier of this Work. Translated in full with supplements by me at http://thirdcahier.blogspot.com/, with links to a transcription of the original. This is the first of the Cahiers actually published, in 1783 (I suspect that the "1783" on the title page of the First Cahier is to be taken with a grain of salt. It is probably not the original edition, no matter what it says.)

Etteilla, Philosophie des Hautes Sciences, 1785. One section, on the 72 angels of God, I have transcribed, translated, and tried to explain at http://etteillasangelology.blogspot.com/

Etteilla, How to amuse oneself with the deck cards named tarot, Serving as the fourth Cahier of this Work, c. 1786?. Reprinted in Jaques Halbronn, Etteilla: L'Astrologie du Livre de Thot (1785) suivi par Recherches sur L'Histoire de l"Astrologie et du Tarot, par Jacques Halbronn, 1993. This is Etteilla's attempt to relate his tarot to astrology, chiefly by means of assigning the zodiac signs in order to cards 1-12 of his deck and the planets, in order, to cards 71-77, with 68-70 given to three other astrological signs. The rest I don't understand. I have not tried to translate any of it.

Claude Hugand-Jejalel (a follower of Etteilla), Faites-mieux, j'y consense, ou Les Instructions d'Isis, Divulgees par un Electeur de la Commune de Lyon, en l'annee 1789 (Do better, I agree, or The Instructions of Isis, Divulged by an Elector of the Commune of Lyon, in the year 1789). I have transcribed and translated a portion of this pamphlet, which explains the layout of the ancient "Temple of Memphis" as understood by Etteilla, at http://templeinmemphis.blogspot.com/

Eliphas Levi, Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual, 1896 translation by E. A. Waite of Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, Paris, 1854. Part One is at http://www.magicgatebg.com/Books/Dogma% ... 20Levi.pdf, and Part Two is at http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/magic/Dogm ... art_II.pdf. These are searchable, which makes him more readable. Try "tarot". Basis for what followed.

Papus, Tarot of the Bohemians. A kind of Hegel of the tarot, full of thesis/antithesis/synthesis propositions. 1892 translation by A. P. Morton at https://books.google.com/books?id=jmyuB ... ns&f=false. This seems to be the 1st edition, before Waite made revisions, as "Waite" is not found in the book selections there. My print copy is the 3rd edition, revised by Waite.
Also see https://books.google.com/books?id=rZsnl ... &q&f=false.

Papus, The Divinatory Tarot, trans. Cheryl Stockman. Selections online at https://books.google.com/books?id=sSy7w ... tory+tarot. this is mainly valuable for the list of synonyms and related words for all 78 cards as developed by d'Odoucet, one of the pupils of Etteilla, plus some translations of Etteilla (not cited as such) on divination, from his published works. I have copied these lists, combined them with another set by a different follower (but differentiated by font), for the majors at http://etteillastrumps.blogspot.com/, in the posts that end "...in the Etteilla tradition"; and the minors at http://neopythagoreanisminthetrot.blogspot.com/.

E. A. Waite, Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910, online at http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/pktar01.htm. Basic if you are interested in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.

Oswald Wirth, Tarot of the Magicians. Most recent edition with helpful forward by Mary Greer, 2012. This is a reissue, with some mistakes, of the 1980 translation put out by Wieser, which is more accurate (the 2012 did not repage some of the internal references which now had different page numbers) and has more of Wirth's illustrations. The 1980 is relatively inexpensive. The translation is sometimes inaccurate toward the end (and in the title!). So it should be checked against Le Tarot des Imagiers du Moyen Age, originally 1927, continually reprinted in French with re-engraved images of the majors. I have used Wirth in my blog on "Tarot and Kabbalah", starting with the post at http://latinsefiroth.blogspot.com/2015/ ... latin.html, to show his continuity with earlier sources.

Paul Foster Case, Introduction to the Study of the Tarot, at http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/intro.pdf; and The Book of Tokens, http://www.gwotton.ca/library/720-3.pdf. Basic texts of this Golden Dawn-based system with more French influence than some; it has many devotees where I live. I have used Case in my blog on "Tarot and Kabbalah", starting with the post at http://latinsefiroth.blogspot.com/2015/ ... latin.html, to show his continuity with earlier sources.

Additions, still Jan. 2:

On Depaulis, Le Tarot Révélé, 2013: I think the single most useful thing we, or maybe I, could do for beginners, and perhaps non-beginners, would be to do a translation of at least the first five chapters of this book (up to p. 70, at least a third of which is pictures), which we would all annotate with suggestions for further study. It is not very long, filled with pictures that can be skipped, but maps and tables that can't. However I am wondering about the ramifications as far as infringing on the territory of others, namely the author and the publisher. But it seems a shape to limit the access to this book.

Also, in Italian, there are three other books worthy of note:

Franco Pratesi, Giochi di carte nel Granducato di Toscana, 2015.

Franco Pratesi, Giochi di carte nella repubblica fiorentina, 2016. I know that this one at least in part reproduces essays that are in Italian on his website.

P. A. Rossi, I. Li Vigni, eds. Il Ludus Triumphorum o Tarot: carte de gioco o alfabeto del destino?, 2011. These are papers from a conference in Genoa in 2010. Paolo Rossi has an article collecting earliest references to playing cards and triumphs. There are a few we haven't looked at in detail. I will try to post and translate those passages.

Added Jan. 4: Biancastella Antonino, Morena Poltronieri, Ernesto Fazioli, Antichi giochi e Tarocchi a Bologna. 2014. Papers read at a Dec. 2014 conference in conjunction with an exhibition at the University of Bologna, with pictures of some items. Articles by Andrea Vitali ("Ludus triomphorum" al "Ludus Tarochorum"), one by Gerolomo Zorli on the game of tarocchino bolognese, Giovanni Pelosini on hermeticism and tarocchi, and several others. I regret to say I have not yet studied it in sufficient depth.
Last edited by mikeh on 04 Jan 2017, 08:42, edited 7 times in total.

Re: Library East Wing sortiment ... a restart

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Well, MikeH, that's a good start ... :-)

Kaplan has in Tarot Encyclopedia I from p. 347-376 (30 pages with roughly 60 entries for each = c. 1800, Kaplan states "more than 1700") sources.
Kaplan has in Tarot Encyclopedia II more than 1300 sources "not included in Volume 1" (page 505-532).

The IPCS list has for "Playing-card history and speculations on their origins" ...
http://www.i-p-c-s.org/faq/books.php#sec4
D'Allemagne, Henry-René
Les cartes à jouer du XIVe au XXe siècle
Hachette, Paris, 1906.
(There is also an anastatic facsimile by Arnaldo Forni, Bologna, 1975.)
text in French.

Bachman, Kurt
Die Spielkarte
Altenburg, 1932
text in German.

Beal, George
Discovering Playing Cards & Tarots
Shire Publications Ltd, Tring, 1972
ISBN 0 85263166 9
text in English. 57pp, useful illustrations.

Beal, George
Playing-Cards and Tarots. Shire Album No.217
Shire Publications Ltd, Princes Risborough, 1988
text in English. 32pp, useful illustrations.

Beal, George
Playing Cards and Their Story
David & Charles, Newton Abbott, 1975
ISBN 0 7153 6876 1
text in English.

Benham, W. Gurney
Playing Cards. History of the Pack and Explanations of Its Many Secrets
Ward, Lock & Co. Ltd., London, 1931 (also reprinted by Spring Books, London, no date)
text in English.

Benham, W. Gurney
A Short History of Playing Cards
W.B. Harris Ltd., Bristol 1956
text in English.

Berend, Mihaly (Foszerkeszto) and Janoska, Antal (Tarsszerkeszto)
Kartyalixikon
Akademiai Kiado, Budapest, 1993
ISBN 963 05 6557 9
text in Hungarian.

Berkel, Nico Peters van, and Haleber, Bob C. T.
De speelkaart, Zes eeuwen des duivels prentenboek
Uitgeverij Heureka, Weesp, 1982
ISBN 90 6262 471 5
text in Dutch. 144pp. Well illustrated.

Bernstroem, J.
Spelkort
Stockholm, 1960
text in Swedish.

Breitkopf, Johann Gottlieb Immanuel
Versuch den Ursprung der Spielkarten, die Einfuhrung des Leinenpapiers und den Anfang der Holzschneidekunst in Europa
Zentralantiquariat der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, Leipzig, 1985
(facsimile of first edition Breitkopf, Leipzig, 1784)
text in German. 136pp + 14 loose plates.

Carter, Thomas Francis
The Invention of Printing in China and its Spread Westward
Columbia University Press, New York, 1925
text in English.

Castelli, Alfredo
Viaggio curioso nel Mondo delle Carte
Fratelli Fabri Editori, Milan, 1975
text in Italian. 160pp, well illustrated.

Chatto, William Andrew
Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing Cards
John Russell Smith, London, 1848
text in English.

Clulow, George
Peculiar Playing Cards.
In "Strand Magazine", Vol V. 1893. Part I Jan pp.77-83; Part II Feb pp.148-155
text in English. 35 figs.

Cohen, S. A.
The Origin and History of Playing-Cards
New York, 1916
text in English.

Depaulis, Thierry
Charles, Judith, Hector et les autres....
In "Jeux et Strategie", No.57, April 1989
text in French. 2pp. illustrated.

Dummett, Michael
The Game of Tarot
Duckworth & Co., London, 1980
ISBN 0 7156 1014 7
text in English, 600 pp, 36 b/w plates.

Dummett, Michael & Kamal Abu-Deeb
Some remarks on Mamluk playing cards
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol.XXXVI, pp.106-28, 1973
text in English.

François, Andre
Histoire de la Carte à jouer
Imprimerie SERG, Ivry, 1974
text in French. 355pp profusely illustrated

Geisberg, Max
Alte Spielkarten
Verlag Valentin Koerner, Baden-Baden, 1973
(reprint of three articles from 1905, 1910 and 1918 with introduction by Hellmut Rosenfeld)
ISBN 3 87320 205 0
text in German. 311pp illustrations of all cards from 3 packs.

Gerlinger, Guy-Pierre
Cartes à Jouer & Philatélie. Répertoire.
Self-published, Paris, 1986
text in French. 16pp. illustrated.

Goldsmid, Edmund
Explanatory Notes of a Pack of Cavalier Playing Cards Temp. Charles II Forming a Complete Political Satire of the Commonwealth
E. & G. Goldsmid, Edinburgh, 1886.
text in English.

Grupp, Claus D.
Spielkarten und ihre Geschichte. Historisches um des Teufels Gebetbuch
ASS Verlag, Leinfelden, 1973
ISBN 3 7601 9201 7
text in German. 88pp. Illustrations as in Spielkarten aus aller Welt.

Handelsman, Norman R.
Serious Reflections
The Plantin Press, 1977
Reprint of an Article by Giles Smith 1754
text in English.

Hermansen, J. V. V.
Spillekort 1350 - 1950
Branner og Korch, Copenhagen, 1950
text in Danish.

Hodson, Donald
County Atlases of the British Isles, Vol I
The Tewin Press, Welwyn, 1984
Describes some geographical packs, and gives good accounts of Lenthall and Bowles
text in English. 200pp largely unillustrated.

Hoffmann, Detlef
Die Welt der Spielkarte/The Playing Card. An Illustrated History.
Edition Leipzig, Leipzig, 1972 (also 1973, English version)
text in German.

Hoffmann, Detlef
Gemalte Spielkarten. Eine kleine Geschichte der Spielkarte.
Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1985
ISBN 3 458 32612 X
text in German. 158pp, well illustrated.

Hoffmann, Detlef
Kultur- und Kunstgeschichte der Spielkarte
Jonas, Marburg, 1995
text in German. 270 pp. many b/w and colour illustrations

Hoffmann, Detlef and Dietrich, Margot
Geschichte auf Spielkarten 1789-1871
Deutsches Spielkarten-Museum, Leinfelden-Echterdingen, 1987
ISBN 3 922608 46 9
text in German.

Horr, Norton T.
A Bibliography of Card-Games and of the History of Playing-Cards
see Jessel, Frederic - A Bibliography of Works in English on Playing Cards and Gaming
Janssen, Han
De Geschiedenis van de Speelkaart
Uitgeverij Elmar b.v., Rijswijk, 1985
ISBN 906120 4674
text in Dutch, English summary. 356 pages, profusely illustrated.

Janssen, Han
Speelkarten
C.A.J. van Dishoeck, Bussum, 1965.
text in Dutch.

Jessel, Frederic
A Bibliography of Works in English on Playing Cards and Gaming
Longmans Green & Co, London, 1905
and

Horr, Norton T.
A Bibliography of Card-Games and of the History of Playing-Cards
Cleveland, Ohio, 1892
Republished in one volume
Patterson Smith, Montclair N.J., 1972
text in English. No illustrations.

Joy, Edward T.
Gaming
HMSO for V&A Museum, London, 1982
ISBN 0 11 290301 0
text in English. 64pp. some illustrations.

Kolb, Eugene
Old Playing-Cards from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth Century.
Hungaria Books, Budapest, 1939-40
(translation from original Hungarian)
text in English. 83pp illustrated in gaudy colours.

Kolb, Jenoe
Regi Jatekkartyak, Magyar es kulfoldi kartyafestes XV. - XIX. szazad
1984 (Reprint, original edition 1939)
ISBN 963 02 2785 1
text in Hungarian.

Lehmann-Haupt
Gutenberg and the Master of the Playing Cards
Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1966
text in English. 83pp illustrated in b/w.

Manfredo, Luigi
Le carte da gioco udinese di Giacomo Bolognatto
In "Bolletin delle Civiche Istituzioni Culturali", Terzo serie, numero 1, Udine, 1992
text in Italian. 16pp, well illustrated.

Mann, Sylvia
Collecting Playing Cards
First published 1966 by MacGibbon & Kee Ltd. with SBN 7030 0023 3
Howard Baker Press, London, 1979
ISBN 0 7030 0145 0
text in English.

Mann, Silvia and Wayland, Virginia
The Dragons of Portugal
Sandford, Farnham, 1973
On the relation between Portuguese and Japanese cards.
text in English.

Mann, Sylvia and David Kingsley
Playing Cards Depicting maps of the British Isles and of English and Welsh Counties
The Map Collectors' Circle, London, 1972.
text in English.

Mayer, L.A.
Mamluk Playing Cards
In "Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Archeologie Orientale", Tome XXXVIII, pp.113-118 ff. 1939
text in French. 6 plates.

Mayer, L.A. (Edited by Ettinghausen, R. & Kurz, O.)
Mamluk Playing Cards
E J Brill, Leiden, 1971
text in English. 10pp + 57 figs + frontispiece & 5 plates in colour.

Merlin, Romain
Origine des cartes à Jouer: Recherches nouvelles sur les naibis, les tarots et sur les autres especes de cartes
chez l'auteur, Paris, 1869
text in French.

Meurer, Heribert
Das Stuttgarter Kartenspiel. The Stuttgart Playing Cards.
Wurttembergisches Landesmuseum, Stuttgart, 1991
ISBN 3 8062 1009 8
Reprint of booklet formerly accompanying facsimile pack
text in German and English. 168pp, all cards fully illustrated.

Morley, H.T.
Old and Curious Playing Cards
Bracken Books, London, 1989
ISBN 1 85170 330 6
Facsimile of book first published in 1931 by B.T. Batsford with added plates
text in English.

O'Neill, Robert V.
Tarot symbolism
Fairway Press, Lima, Ohio, 1986
ISBN 0 89536 936 2
text in English. 392pp. unillustrated.
(8)
Pilipczuk, Alexander
Ein musikalisches Kartenspiel aus dem letzten Drittel des 18 Jahrhunderts
In Jahrbuch der Hamburger Kunstsammlungen, Band 16, pp.119-146, 1971
text in German. 35 figs.

Pinder, Eberhard
Charta Lusoria
Basoderm, GmbH, Biberach an der Riss, 1961
text in German.

Reisig, Otto
Die Kartenruckseiten in ihrer Bedeutung fur die zeitliche Festlegung der Spielkarten
In 'Thuringische Studien, Festschrift fur Feier des 250-jahrigen Bestehens der Thuringischen Landes-bibliothek Altenburg", pp.122-133 and figs 1-29, Altenburg, 1936.
text in German.

Rintchen
Le jeu de cartes Mongol & A propos du chamanisme Mongol.
In "Studia Orientalia Edidit Societas Orientalis" Fennica XVIII:4, Helsinki, 1955
text in French. 16pp. with figs.

Rosenfeld, Hellmut
Die Beziehung der europaischer Spielkarten zum Orient und zum ur-Schach
In "Archiv fur Kulturgeschichte", Band 42, Heft 1, Bohlau Verlag, Cologne & Graz, 1960
text in German. 2 figs.

Rosenfeld, Hellmut
Die Kupferstich-Spielkarten des 15 Jahrhunderts und neu entdeckte Vexier-Karten des 17 Jahrhunderts zwischen Buchillustration und Gebrauchsgraphik
In "Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 1988", pp. 257-268
text in German. 8 figs.

Rosenfeld, Hellmut
Wann und wo wurde die Holzschnitt erfunden?
In "Archiv fur Geschichte des Buchwesens", Band 34, 1990, pp.327-342
text in German.

Rosenfeld, Hellmut
Zur Datierbarkeit früher Spielkarten in Europa und im nahen Orient
In "Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 1975", pp.353-371.
text in German. 14 figs.

Rosenfeld, Hellmut
Zur Geschichte de Spielkarten Forschungsbericht 1965-1975
In "Borsenblatt fur den Deutschen Buchhandel", Frankfurt, Nr 78, pp.286-297, 1976
text in German. Unillustrated. Bibliography with 95 entries.

Rosenfeld, Hellmut
Zur vor- und fruhgeschichte und Morphogenese von Kartenspiel und Tarock
In "Archiv fur Kulturgeschichte", Band 42, Heft 1, pp.65-94, Bohlau Verlag, Cologne & Vienna, 1970
text in German. unillustrated.

Rosenfeld, Hellmut and Kohlmann, Erwin
Deutsche Spielkarten aus fuenf Jahrhunderten
Insel, Frankfurt, 1964
text in German.

Rosenfeld, Helmut & Kohlmann, Erwin
Die schonsten Deutschen Spielkarten
Insel Verlag, Leipzig, n.d.
text in German. 51pp including 36 plates.

Rumpf, Marianne
Zur Entwicklung der Spielkartenfarben in der Schweiz, in Deutschland und in Frankreich
In "Schweizerischen Archiv fur Volkskunde", 72 Jahrgang, Heft 1-2, pp.1-32, Basel 1976
text in German. 16 figs, plus diagrams.

Schreiber, Wilhelm-Ludwig
Die ältesten Spielkarten und die auf das Kartenspiel Bezug habenden Urkunden der 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts
J.H.Ed. Heitz, Strasbourg, 1937
text in German. 176 pp., XII b/w plates
Reprint: A.W. van Bekhoven, Naarden, nd (1960s)

Segeth, Uwe-Volker
Spielkarten. Battenberg Sammler-Kataloge
Battenberg Verlag, Munich, 1986
ISBN 3 87045 218 8
text in German. 182pp, well illustrated.

Segeth, Uwe-Volker
Spielkarten Jugendstil und Art Deco
Edition Christian Brandstatter, Vienna, 1994
ISBN 3 85447 447 4
text in German.
(6: Art)
Seguin, Jean-Pierre
Le jeu de carte
Hermann, Paris, 1968
text in French. 345pp Well illustrated.

Singer, Samuel Weller
Researches into the History of Playing Cards, with illustrations of the origin of printing and engraving on wood
London, 1816
text in English.

Taylor, The Reverend S.
The History of Playing Cards With Anecdotes of Their Use in Conjuring, Fortune-Telling and Card-Sharping
John Camden Hotten, London, 1865
ISBN 0 8048 1026 5
(This is also available as a reprint pocketbook published by Tuttle, Rutland and Tokio, 1973, ISBN 0 8048 1026 5)
text in English.

Taylor, The Reverend Ed. S.
The History of Playing Cards With Anecdotes of Their Use in Conjuring, Fortune-Telling and Card-Sharping
Reprinted by Charles E Tuttle Company, Rutland Vermont & Tokyo Japan, 1973
ISBN 0 8048 1026 5
text in English.

Tilley, Roger
Playing Cards
Octopus, London, 1973
ISBN 0 7064 0049 6
text in English.
(First published 1967 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, also published with German text and title "Spielkarten", by Parkland, Stuttgart with date 1967)

Tilley, Roger
A History of Playing Cards
Studio Vista, London, 1973
ISBN 0 289 70184 8
text in English.

Torgny, Ove
Tio spel med spader kung. Historia kring spelkort och kortspel
Bilda Förlag, Stockholm, 2003
ISBN 91-574-7484-2
text in Swedish.

Trumpf, Peter
Die Spielkarte
VASS, Stuttgart-Leinfelden, without date (1957)
text in German.

Van Rensselaer, Mrs John King
Prophetical Educational and Playing Cards
George W. Jacobs and Co., Philadelphia, 1912
text in English.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42950/4 ... 2950-h.htm

Van Rensselaer, Mrs John King
The Devil's Picture Books, A History of Playing Cards.
T.Fisher Unwin, London, 1892
text in English.

Verame, Jean
Les Merveilleuses Cartes à Jouer Du XIXe Siècle
Editions Nathan, Paris, France, 1989
ISBN 2 09 290157 5
text in French.

Verame, Jean
Sublimes cartes à jouer
Editions du Félin, Paris, France, 2007
ISBN-10 28664565997
ISBN-13 978-2-86645-659-7
text in French, English & Italian.

Wayland, Virginia
Apache Playing Cards from the Wayland Collection
Wayland Playing Card Monograph No.3, self-published, Pasadena, 1972
text in English. 10pp.

Wayland, Virginia and Wayland, Harold and Ferg, Alan
Playing Cards of the Apaches. A Study in Cultural Adaption
Wayland Playing Card Monograph No.4, Screenfold Press, Tucson AZ, 2006
text in English. 318pp.

Wayland, Virginia
The Winstanley Geographical Cards
Self published, Pasadena, California, 1967
text in English. 75pp, all cards illustrated.

Wayland, Virginia & Harold
Francis Barlow's sketches for The Meal Tub Plot playing cards
Self-published, Pasadena, California, 1971
text in English. 41pp illustrated.

Wayland, Virginia and Harold
Of Carving, Cards and Cookery
Raccoon Press, Arcadia, California, USA, 1962
text in English.

Weise, Peter
Rund um die Spielkarte
Verlag Tribune, Berlin, 1986
ISBN 3 7303 0016 4
text in German.

Wowk, Kathleen
Playing Cards of the World
Lutterworth Press, Guildford, Surrey, 1983
ISBN 0 7188 2408 3
text in English.

Yale University Library
The Art Of The Playing Card, The Cary Collection
Yale University Library, Yale, 1973.
text in English.

Zsoldos, Beno
A Jatekkartya es Tortenete
Gondolat, Budapest, 1980
ISBN 963 280 885 1, ISSN 0133 0489
text in Hungarian. 128pp, well illustrated.
And the IPCS list has for "Tarot" 17 sources
http://www.i-p-c-s.org/faq/books.php#tarot
Berti, Giordano & Vitali, Andrea (editors) et al.
Le Carte di Corte. I Tarocchi. Gioco e magia alla corte degli Estensi
Nuova Alfa Editoriale, Bologna,1987
ISBN 88 779 016 4
text in Italian. 234pp illustrated.

Depaulis, Thierry (Editor)
Tarot, Jeu et Magie.
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1984
ISBN 2 7177 1699 8
text in French.

Dummett, Michael
Il Mondo e l'angelo. I Tarocchi e la loro Storia
Bibliopolis, Naples, 1993
ISBN 88 7088 272 1
text in Italian. 489pp, few illustrations.

Dummett, Michael
The Game of Tarot
Duckworth & Co., London, 1980
ISBN 0 7156 1014 7
text in English, 600 pp, 36 b/w plates.

Dummett, Michael and McLeod, John
A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack
The Game of Triumphs, Volume One
The Edwin Mellen Press, 2004
ISBN 0-7734-6447-6 (v. 1)
text in English, 401 pages, 13 colour plates

Dummett, Michael and McLeod, John
A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack
The Game of Triumphs, Volume Two
The Edwin Mellen Press, 2004
ISBN 0-7734-6449-2 (v. 2)
text in English, 509 pages, 12 colour plates

Hoffmann, Detlef and Dietrich, Margot
Tarocke mit französischen Farben
Deutsches Spielkarten-Museum, Leinfelden-Echterdingen, 1984
text in German.

Hoffmann, Detlef & Margot Dietrich
Tarot Tarock Tarocchi: Tarocke mit italienischen Farben
Deutsches Spielkarten-Museum, Leinfelden-Echterdingen, 1988
ISBN 3 9801979 1 3
text in German. 228pp illustrated in b/w + 16 colour plates.

Kaplan, Stuart R.
The Encyclopedia of Tarot, Volume I
U.S. Games Systems, Inc., New York 10016, U.S.A., 1978
(Sixth printing 1988)
ISBN 0 913866 11 3

Kaplan, Stuart R.
The Encyclopedia of Tarot, Volume II
U.S. Games Systems, Inc., New York 10016, U.S.A., 1986
ISBN 0 913866 36 9

Kaplan, Stuart R.
The Encyclopedia of Tarot, Volume III
U.S. Games Systems, Inc., Stamford, CT 06902, U.S.A., 1990
ISBN 0 88079 122 5

Kaplan, Stuart R.
Tarot Classic
Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1972
ISBN 0 448 01223 5
text in English. 240pp, some illustrations.

Moakley, Gertrude
The Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo for the Visconti-Sforza Family. An Iconographic and Historical Study by Gertrude Moakley.
The New York Public Library, 1966
Library of Congress CCN 65-18551
text in English.

O'Neill, Robert V.
Tarot symbolism
Fairway Press, Lima, Ohio, 1986
ISBN 0 89536 936 2
text in English. 392pp. unillustrated.

Radau, Sigmar
Tiertarock
MGM Munzgalerie Munchen, 1989
ISBN 3 926195 00 2
text in German.

Reisinger, Klaus
Tarocke: Kulturgeschichte auf Kartenbildern
Self-published, Vienna, 1996 + 1999
text in German. 5 vols. (1996) + vol. 6 (1999).

Haas, Walter (ed.), Depaulis, Thierry, & McLeod, John
Das Tarockspiel in der Schweiz / Tarocke des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts im Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen. (Schweizer Spielkarten 2)
Sturzenegger Stiftung Schaffhausen / Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen, Schaffhausen, 2004.
catalogue by Max Ruh
text in German, French and English. English and French summaries.
222 pp. profusely illustrated in colour
... Perhaps one should find first a solution for beginners with some focus on sources from the category "available in the web"
Last edited by Huck on 22 Jul 2020, 12:12, edited 2 times in total.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Library East Wing sortiment ... a restart

5
Perhaps, for the ones in those lists that you know, you could give some opinions about their current usefulness, and for whom (i.e. beginners/advanced). The list is too long to be useful in itself. Although I must say I didn't know about the one by Yale. I need to find that one. Also, some of these books are available on the Web. When I made up my list, much of the actual time used was in checking to see what was on the web.
Huck.
.. Perhaps one should find first a solution for beginners with some focus on sources from the category "available in the web"
Well, on the Web you generally won't get the caliber of writing that you get in a book. It's a fact. There's nothing the caliber of Depaulis's recent book/catalog. Unless maybe some book that is also on the Web. On the "West Wing" section of the Library, perhaps you could identify what you think are good websites for a beginner. On this side, we can identify books and articles that are in print (and maybe also on the Web), and rate them.

Most ICPS articles, except for recent ones (i.e. the last couple of years), are on the Web. You just have to "Ask Alexander".
https://askalexander.org/
Of course you have to know what to ask. But it's pretty accommodating. You just type in a name or subject, or whatever. I've even asked for vol. number and number number. It brings up a mess of pages, and you click on one that looks promising.

Re: mikeh's list of books as of Jan. 2, 2017

6
mikeh wrote:Revised Jan. 4, adding one item at the bottom and a few more comments on the usefulness of the books mentioned.

Yes, good idea, Huck, especially since many of the books and articles are online, one place or another. I suppose those count as websites, but I will consider them books and articles.

We will all have different ideas about what is worth putting in such a list. So I am reserving this space for my list, which I will update as I can, from my posts. I am for the moment dealing only with books, putting them in chronological order, but in 3 categories, with links, as the books themselves are largely unobtainable except when online. I am only listing ones l have personally examined, in one form or other. I am mostly including books from 1966 and after, except that I have a historical section of major esoteric tarot original works since 1770, because I have done a lot with the ones I list.

Jan. 2, 2017:

Books in English:

Moakley, Gertrude, The Tarot cards painted by Bonifacio Bembo, 1966. I would call this book the beginning of the scientific approach to the tarot. Available in libraries. These days it's more of a reference work than anything else.

Dieter Hoffman, The Playing Card: an illustrated history, 1972. Translated from German. Not hard to find.

Brian Innes, The Tarot: How to use and interpret the cards, 1977. Actually a good introduction to the history of the 22 "major arcana", including the occultists' decks, profusely illustrated, with divination amounting to only about a quarter of its 88 pages.

Kaplan, Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. 1, 1978 and 2, 1986, are essential purchases. Vol. 4 has occasionally some material that he didn't find earlier, but it is hardly worth buying the book for. The other two I look at constantly. Available in libraries, and frequently for sale somewhere.

Game of Tarot, by Michael Dummett, 1980. Unobtainable except from libraries. The seminal work on the tarot from a scientific perspective. These days, it's mostly a reference work, but something you have to read on a particular issue if you want to think it through. Someone should put it on the Web.

John Shephard, The Tarot Trumps: Cosmos in Miniature, the Structure and Symbolism of the Twenty-Two Tarot Trump Cards, 1980. Available cheaply. A forgotten classic, in my view not in the least outmoded.

Robert Wang, The Qabalistic Tarot, a Textbook of Mystical Philosophy, 1983, online at https://archive.org/details/RobertWang- ... Tarot-1983. This is supposedly the best introduction to the Golden Dawn tradition of tarot interpretation. It certainly is on a different level from Decker and Dummett's Occult Tarot (see below).

Michael Dummett, The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards, 1986. Excellent introduction, images, and comments. But not essential to have.

Robert O'Neill, Tarot Symbolism, 1986. Another forgotten classic, somewhat useless these days. Available from J.-M David's Association for Tarot Studies.

Stephen R. Franklin, Origins of the Tarot Deck: a study of the Astronomical Substructure of Game and Divining Boards, 1988. Snippets are online. In the Bidev et al tradition. In my local library, quite forgotten about even by me. Surely not worth reading.

Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis, and Michael Dummett, A Wicked Pack of Cards, 1996. Snippets at https://books.google.com/books?id=MG6DA ... 0Q6AEIKDAC Invaluable for the history of the occult tarot 1770-1870.

Ronald Decker and Michael Dummett, A History of The Occult Tarot 1870-1970, 2002. Snippets at https://books.google.com/books?id=0YB-A ... 0Q6AEIIjAB. This is meant as a continuation of Wicked Pack of Cards. I haven't found it very useful. You'd hardly guess, except for some names, that it covers much the same people as Wang's book.

Tiberio Gonnard and Giordano Berti, The Visconti Tarot, Scarabeo, 2002. Berti just wrote the introduction. Translation from Italian. Claims to be about cartomancy, but the short cartomantic interpretations are standard occultist views and have little to do with the very detailed and valuable analysis of the symbolism in the details of the PMB cards.

Michael Dummett and John McLeod, A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack: the Game of Triumphs, vol. 1 and vol. 2, 2004. Vol. 1 is available in U.S. libraries. I don't know vol. 2. For specialists only.

Paul Huson, Mystical origins of the tarot, from ancient roots to modern usage, 2004. Generous selections online at https://books.google.com/books?id=D3JnAwAAQBAJ. Good job relating Etteilla's word-lists to those of the Golden Dawn. The first 50 pages or so are online, then selected pages (discussion of Golden Dawn omitted). Accurate, readable, one of the best introductions currently in English, although you wouldn't guess that from the title.

Robert Place, The Tarot: History, Symbolism, Divination, 2005. Historical part online at https://books.google.com/books?id=jQdGi ... &q&f=false. Tries to be historical and reflects current thinking, but not very careful about historical details. If he doesn't give a good footnote, don't trust him. If he does, read the source, as he doesn't always get it right. His latest book, Tarot and Alchemy, is worse. His idea of alchemy is that it is a set of pretty pictures worth associating to the occult tarot. Needless to say, he is very popular. He does have interesting intuitions.

Alain Bougearel, Franco Cardini, and Andrea Vitali, coordinators: The Caravan of Tarot: Tarots - History-Art-Magic. Online at http://www.letarot.it/cgi-bin/pages/mos ... nglese.pdf. Also in print. For Italian and French version links, see those sections. Unclear when it was published. The title page says 1995--an exhibition then-- but the back page has 2006. It's pretty good.

Ross Sinclair Caldwell, Thierry Depaulis, and Marco Ponzi, Explaining the Tarot: Two Italian Renaissance Essays on the Making of the Tarot Pack, 2010. The Discorso by Piscina is online, but not the Anonymous, almost as indispensable. Both are 1560s Italy, essential works.

Ronald Decker, The Esoteric Tarot: Ancient Sources Rediscovered in Hermeticism and Tarot, 2013. Useful selections online at https://books.google.com/books?id=qW11T ... ot&f=false. The presentation is eccentric, but he has sources found nowhere else. There is a thread discussing him, often antagonistically, at viewtopic.php?f=12&t=971&hilit=decker+esoteric#p14134 There is also my blog at http://4essaysstimulated.blogspot.com/, more sympathetic, with many quotes. Worth having if you are interested in the subject as defined in the title.


Books in French:

Depaulis, Tarot, Jeu, et Magie, 1984, exhibition catalog, for sale in color for $100, but digitalized in full black and white by the Bibliotheque Nationale at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6532698n.

Bougearel. Cardini, Vitali, coordinnateurs, La Caravane du tarot: Tarot histoire-arte-magie, http://www.letarot.it/cgi-bin/pages/mos ... r_sito.pdf. Also in print. For links to the English and Italian versions, see those sections.

Depaulis, Le Tarot Révélé, 2013. Undoubtedly the most up to date and accurate short introduction to tarot history now available. There remain some glaringly unjustified statements--of which Franco Pratesi's work in 2016 has looked at some issues in his chapter 1. The book has summaries in English and German, of use to someone who wants it in a 5 page nutshell.

Books in Italian:

Dummett, Il Mondo e l'Angelo, 1993. Condensed and updated version of Game of Tarot. Hard to get. See my blog at http://dummettsmondo.blogspot.com/2015/.html for transcriptions and translations.

Andrea Vitali and Terry Zanetti, Il Tarocchino di Bologna: Storia, Iconographia, Divinizationedal XV al XX secolo, 2005. The only book I know on the subject, well presented, earning a favorable review by Dummett for Vitali's contribution. Zanetti's essay on cartomancy is good, too, I think.

Bougearel, Cardini, and Vitali, coordinatori, La Carovana dei Tarocchi - Tarocchi - Storia - Arte - Magia, http://www.associazioneletarot.it/cgi-b ... aliano.pdf. Also in print. For links to English and French versions, see those sections.

Vitali, ed. Il Castello dei Tarocchi, 2010. 19 essays by 12 authors, many known on THF, all in Italian.

Sandrina Bandera and Marco Tanzi “Quelle carte de triumphi che se fanno a Cremona”: I Tarocchi dei Bembo, 2013. Exhibition catalog with latest opinions on Brera-Brambilla, Pierpont-Morgan-Bergamo, and occasionally even the Cary-Yale. Some excerpts, with my translations, and pictures from the book at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1058&hilit=Bandera.

Laura Paola Gnaccolini, ed., Il segreto dei segreti: i tarocchi Sola Busca e la cultura ermetico-alchemica tra Marche e Veneto alla fine del Quattrocento, 2012. For translations and some remarks by me, see http://newmaterialsolabusca.blogspot.com/. For discussion by THF participants, see the thread viewtopic.php?f=11&t=988&p=15884&hilit= ... ini#p14716


Esoteric works on the tarot, mostly by its historic practitioners.

Etteilla, ou manière de se récréer avec un jeu de cartes par M***. 1773 second edition of French original online in Gallica. https://books.google.com/books?id=CI85A ... alse.There is supposedly a translation into English by Caitlin Matthews, which you can get as part of a course on the Petit Etteilla, which is what this book gives a cartomantic--pardon, cartonomantic--system for. I once saw the course advertised but can't find it currently. He later expanded this system to include the tarot.

Court de Gebelin, "Concerning the game of tarots", and De Mellet, "Research on the Tarots, and the Divination by the Cards of the Tarot". De Gebelin's essay in French is at http://www.tarock.info/gebelin.htm and in English, translated by David Tyson, at http://priory-of-sion.com/biblios/links/gebelin.pdf. The de Mellet original and translation is at http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Recherch ... les_Tarots. There is a print translation with extensive historical notes by J. Karlin, in Rhapsodies of the Bizarre, 2002. Karlin's idea of history tends to mean 1781 and after.

Etteilla, Manière de se récréer avec le jeu de cartes nommées tarots, Pour servir de premier Cahier a cet ouvrage, 1783, in French at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6 ... .f1.langEN.

Etteilla, How to amuse oneself with the deck cards named tarot, Serving as the second Cahier of this Work, c. 1785. Selections transcribed and translated by me at http://etteillastrumps.blogspot.com/ (but not the posts ending "...in the Etteilla tradition", which are something else.

Etteilla, How to amuse oneself with the deck cards named tarot, Serving as the third Cahier of this Work. Translated in full with supplements by me at http://thirdcahier.blogspot.com/, with links to a transcription of the original. This is the first of the Cahiers actually published, in 1783 (I suspect that the "1783" on the title page of the First Cahier is to be taken with a grain of salt. It is probably not the original edition, no matter what it says.)

Etteilla, Philosophie des Hautes Sciences, 1785. One section, on the 72 angels of God, I have transcribed, translated, and tried to explain at http://etteillasangelology.blogspot.com/

Etteilla, How to amuse oneself with the deck cards named tarot, Serving as the fourth Cahier of this Work, c. 1786?. Reprinted in Jaques Halbronn, Etteilla: L'Astrologie du Livre de Thot (1785) suivi par Recherches sur L'Histoire de l"Astrologie et du Tarot, par Jacques Halbronn, 1993. This is Etteilla's attempt to relate his tarot to astrology, chiefly by means of assigning the zodiac signs in order to cards 1-12 of his deck and the planets, in order, to cards 71-77, with 68-70 given to three other astrological signs. The rest I don't understand. I have not tried to translate any of it.

Claude Hugand-Jejalel (a follower of Etteilla), Faites-mieux, j'y consense, ou Les Instructions d'Isis, Divulgees par un Electeur de la Commune de Lyon, en l'annee 1789 (Do better, I agree, or The Instructions of Isis, Divulged by an Elector of the Commune of Lyon, in the year 1789). I have transcribed and translated a portion of this pamphlet, which explains the layout of the ancient "Temple of Memphis" as understood by Etteilla, at http://templeinmemphis.blogspot.com/

Eliphas Levi, Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual, 1896 translation by E. A. Waite of Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, Paris, 1854. Part One is at http://www.magicgatebg.com/Books/Dogma% ... 20Levi.pdf, and Part Two is at http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/magic/Dogm ... art_II.pdf. These are searchable, which makes him more readable. Try "tarot". Basis for what followed.

Papus, Tarot of the Bohemians. A kind of Hegel of the tarot, full of thesis/antithesis/synthesis propositions. 1892 translation by A. P. Morton at https://books.google.com/books?id=jmyuB ... ns&f=false. This seems to be the 1st edition, before Waite made revisions, as "Waite" is not found in the book selections there. My print copy is the 3rd edition, revised by Waite.
Also see https://books.google.com/books?id=rZsnl ... &q&f=false.

Papus, The Divinatory Tarot, trans. Cheryl Stockman. Selections online at https://books.google.com/books?id=sSy7w ... tory+tarot. this is mainly valuable for the list of synonyms and related words for all 78 cards as developed by d'Odoucet, one of the pupils of Etteilla, plus some translations of Etteilla (not cited as such) on divination, from his published works. I have copied these lists, combined them with another set by a different follower (but differentiated by font), for the majors at http://etteillastrumps.blogspot.com/, in the posts that end "...in the Etteilla tradition"; and the minors at http://neopythagoreanisminthetrot.blogspot.com/.

E. A. Waite, Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910, online at http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/pktar01.htm. Basic if you are interested in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.

Oswald Wirth, Tarot of the Magicians. Most recent edition with helpful forward by Mary Greer, 2012. This is a reissue, with some mistakes, of the 1980 translation put out by Wieser, which is more accurate (the 2012 did not repage some of the internal references which now had different page numbers) and has more of Wirth's illustrations. The 1980 is relatively inexpensive. The translation is sometimes inaccurate toward the end (and in the title!). So it should be checked against Le Tarot des Imagiers du Moyen Age, originally 1927, continually reprinted in French with re-engraved images of the majors. I have used Wirth in my blog on "Tarot and Kabbalah", starting with the post at http://latinsefiroth.blogspot.com/2015/ ... latin.html, to show his continuity with earlier sources.

Paul Foster Case, Introduction to the Study of the Tarot, at http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/intro.pdf; and The Book of Tokens, http://www.gwotton.ca/library/720-3.pdf. Basic texts of this Golden Dawn-based system with more French influence than some; it has many devotees where I live. I have used Case in my blog on "Tarot and Kabbalah", starting with the post at http://latinsefiroth.blogspot.com/2015/ ... latin.html, to show his continuity with earlier sources.

Additions, still Jan. 2:

On Depaulis, Le Tarot Révélé, 2013: I think the single most useful thing we, or maybe I, could do for beginners, and perhaps non-beginners, would be to do a translation of at least the first five chapters of this book (up to p. 70, at least a third of which is pictures), which we would all annotate with suggestions for further study. It is not very long, filled with pictures that can be skipped, but maps and tables that can't. However I am wondering about the ramifications as far as infringing on the territory of others, namely the author and the publisher. But it seems a shape to limit the access to this book.

Also, in Italian, there are three other books worthy of note:

Franco Pratesi, Giochi di carte nel Granducato di Toscana, 2015.

Franco Pratesi, Giochi di carte nella repubblica fiorentina, 2016. I know that this one at least in part reproduces essays that are in Italian on his website.

P. A. Rossi, I. Li Vigni, eds. Il Ludus Triumphorum o Tarot: carte de gioco o alfabeto del destino?, 2011. These are papers from a conference in Genoa in 2010. Paolo Rossi has an article collecting earliest references to playing cards and triumphs. There are a few we haven't looked at in detail. I will try to post and translate those passages.

Added Jan. 4: Biancastella Antonino, Morena Poltronieri, Ernesto Fazioli, Antichi giochi e Tarocchi a Bologna. 2014. Papers read at a Dec. 2014 conference in conjunction with an exhibition at the University of Bologna, with pictures of some items. Articles by Andrea Vitali ("Ludus triomphorum" al "Ludus Tarochorum"), one by Gerolomo Zorli on the game of tarocchino bolognese, Giovanni Pelosini on hermeticism and tarocchi, and several others. I regret to say I have not yet studied it in sufficient depth.


I hope you'll go on with this attempt...
http://www.sgdl-auteurs.org/alain-bouge ... Biographie

Re: mikeh's list of books as of Jan. 2, 2017

7
mikeh wrote:Revised Jan. 4, adding one item at the bottom and a few more comments on the usefulness of the books mentioned.

Yes, good idea, Huck, especially since many of the books and articles are online, one place or another. I suppose those count as websites, but I will consider them books and articles.

We will all have different ideas about what is worth putting in such a list. So I am reserving this space for my list, which I will update as I can, from my posts. I am for the moment dealing only with books, putting them in chronological order, but in 3 categories, with links, as the books themselves are largely unobtainable except when online. I am only listing ones l have personally examined, in one form or other. I am mostly including books from 1966 and after, except that I have a historical section of major esoteric tarot original works since 1770, because I have done a lot with the ones I list.

Jan. 2, 2017:

Books in English:

Moakley, Gertrude, The Tarot cards painted by Bonifacio Bembo, 1966. I would call this book the beginning of the scientific approach to the tarot. Available in libraries. These days it's more of a reference work than anything else.

Dieter Hoffman, The Playing Card: an illustrated history, 1972. Translated from German. Not hard to find.

Brian Innes, The Tarot: How to use and interpret the cards, 1977. Actually a good introduction to the history of the 22 "major arcana", including the occultists' decks, profusely illustrated, with divination amounting to only about a quarter of its 88 pages.

Kaplan, Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. 1, 1978 and 2, 1986, are essential purchases. Vol. 4 has occasionally some material that he didn't find earlier, but it is hardly worth buying the book for. The other two I look at constantly. Available in libraries, and frequently for sale somewhere.

Game of Tarot, by Michael Dummett, 1980. Unobtainable except from libraries. The seminal work on the tarot from a scientific perspective. These days, it's mostly a reference work, but something you have to read on a particular issue if you want to think it through. Someone should put it on the Web.

John Shephard, The Tarot Trumps: Cosmos in Miniature, the Structure and Symbolism of the Twenty-Two Tarot Trump Cards, 1980. Available cheaply. A forgotten classic, in my view not in the least outmoded.

Robert Wang, The Qabalistic Tarot, a Textbook of Mystical Philosophy, 1983, online at https://archive.org/details/RobertWang- ... Tarot-1983. This is supposedly the best introduction to the Golden Dawn tradition of tarot interpretation. It certainly is on a different level from Decker and Dummett's Occult Tarot (see below).

Michael Dummett, The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards, 1986. Excellent introduction, images, and comments. But not essential to have.

Robert O'Neill, Tarot Symbolism, 1986. Another forgotten classic, somewhat useless these days. Available from J.-M David's Association for Tarot Studies.

Stephen R. Franklin, Origins of the Tarot Deck: a study of the Astronomical Substructure of Game and Divining Boards, 1988. Snippets are online. In the Bidev et al tradition. In my local library, quite forgotten about even by me. Surely not worth reading.

Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis, and Michael Dummett, A Wicked Pack of Cards, 1996. Snippets at https://books.google.com/books?id=MG6DA ... 0Q6AEIKDAC Invaluable for the history of the occult tarot 1770-1870.

Ronald Decker and Michael Dummett, A History of The Occult Tarot 1870-1970, 2002. Snippets at https://books.google.com/books?id=0YB-A ... 0Q6AEIIjAB. This is meant as a continuation of Wicked Pack of Cards. I haven't found it very useful. You'd hardly guess, except for some names, that it covers much the same people as Wang's book.

Tiberio Gonnard and Giordano Berti, The Visconti Tarot, Scarabeo, 2002. Berti just wrote the introduction. Translation from Italian. Claims to be about cartomancy, but the short cartomantic interpretations are standard occultist views and have little to do with the very detailed and valuable analysis of the symbolism in the details of the PMB cards.

Michael Dummett and John McLeod, A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack: the Game of Triumphs, vol. 1 and vol. 2, 2004. Vol. 1 is available in U.S. libraries. I don't know vol. 2. For specialists only.

Paul Huson, Mystical origins of the tarot, from ancient roots to modern usage, 2004. Generous selections online at https://books.google.com/books?id=D3JnAwAAQBAJ. Good job relating Etteilla's word-lists to those of the Golden Dawn. The first 50 pages or so are online, then selected pages (discussion of Golden Dawn omitted). Accurate, readable, one of the best introductions currently in English, although you wouldn't guess that from the title.

Robert Place, The Tarot: History, Symbolism, Divination, 2005. Historical part online at https://books.google.com/books?id=jQdGi ... &q&f=false. Tries to be historical and reflects current thinking, but not very careful about historical details. If he doesn't give a good footnote, don't trust him. If he does, read the source, as he doesn't always get it right. His latest book, Tarot and Alchemy, is worse. His idea of alchemy is that it is a set of pretty pictures worth associating to the occult tarot. Needless to say, he is very popular. He does have interesting intuitions.

Alain Bougearel, Franco Cardini, and Andrea Vitali, coordinators: The Caravan of Tarot: Tarots - History-Art-Magic. Online at http://www.letarot.it/cgi-bin/pages/mos ... nglese.pdf. Also in print. For Italian and French version links, see those sections. Unclear when it was published. The title page says 1995--an exhibition then-- but the back page has 2006. It's pretty good.

Ross Sinclair Caldwell, Thierry Depaulis, and Marco Ponzi, Explaining the Tarot: Two Italian Renaissance Essays on the Making of the Tarot Pack, 2010. The Discorso by Piscina is online, but not the Anonymous, almost as indispensable. Both are 1560s Italy, essential works.

Ronald Decker, The Esoteric Tarot: Ancient Sources Rediscovered in Hermeticism and Tarot, 2013. Useful selections online at https://books.google.com/books?id=qW11T ... ot&f=false. The presentation is eccentric, but he has sources found nowhere else. There is a thread discussing him, often antagonistically, at viewtopic.php?f=12&t=971&hilit=decker+esoteric#p14134 There is also my blog at http://4essaysstimulated.blogspot.com/, more sympathetic, with many quotes. Worth having if you are interested in the subject as defined in the title.


Books in French:

Depaulis, Tarot, Jeu, et Magie, 1984, exhibition catalog, for sale in color for $100, but digitalized in full black and white by the Bibliotheque Nationale at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6532698n.

Bougearel. Cardini, Vitali, coordinnateurs, La Caravane du tarot: Tarot histoire-arte-magie, http://www.letarot.it/cgi-bin/pages/mos ... r_sito.pdf. Also in print. For links to the English and Italian versions, see those sections.

Depaulis, Le Tarot Révélé, 2013. Undoubtedly the most up to date and accurate short introduction to tarot history now available. There remain some glaringly unjustified statements--of which Franco Pratesi's work in 2016 has looked at some issues in his chapter 1. The book has summaries in English and German, of use to someone who wants it in a 5 page nutshell.

Books in Italian:

Dummett, Il Mondo e l'Angelo, 1993. Condensed and updated version of Game of Tarot. Hard to get. See my blog at http://dummettsmondo.blogspot.com/2015/.html for transcriptions and translations.

Andrea Vitali and Terry Zanetti, Il Tarocchino di Bologna: Storia, Iconographia, Divinizationedal XV al XX secolo, 2005. The only book I know on the subject, well presented, earning a favorable review by Dummett for Vitali's contribution. Zanetti's essay on cartomancy is good, too, I think.

Bougearel, Cardini, and Vitali, coordinatori, La Carovana dei Tarocchi - Tarocchi - Storia - Arte - Magia, http://www.associazioneletarot.it/cgi-b ... aliano.pdf. Also in print. For links to English and French versions, see those sections.

Vitali, ed. Il Castello dei Tarocchi, 2010. 19 essays by 12 authors, many known on THF, all in Italian.

Sandrina Bandera and Marco Tanzi “Quelle carte de triumphi che se fanno a Cremona”: I Tarocchi dei Bembo, 2013. Exhibition catalog with latest opinions on Brera-Brambilla, Pierpont-Morgan-Bergamo, and occasionally even the Cary-Yale. Some excerpts, with my translations, and pictures from the book at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1058&hilit=Bandera.

Laura Paola Gnaccolini, ed., Il segreto dei segreti: i tarocchi Sola Busca e la cultura ermetico-alchemica tra Marche e Veneto alla fine del Quattrocento, 2012. For translations and some remarks by me, see http://newmaterialsolabusca.blogspot.com/. For discussion by THF participants, see the thread viewtopic.php?f=11&t=988&p=15884&hilit= ... ini#p14716


Esoteric works on the tarot, mostly by its historic practitioners.

Etteilla, ou manière de se récréer avec un jeu de cartes par M***. 1773 second edition of French original online in Gallica. https://books.google.com/books?id=CI85A ... alse.There is supposedly a translation into English by Caitlin Matthews, which you can get as part of a course on the Petit Etteilla, which is what this book gives a cartomantic--pardon, cartonomantic--system for. I once saw the course advertised but can't find it currently. He later expanded this system to include the tarot.

Court de Gebelin, "Concerning the game of tarots", and De Mellet, "Research on the Tarots, and the Divination by the Cards of the Tarot". De Gebelin's essay in French is at http://www.tarock.info/gebelin.htm and in English, translated by David Tyson, at http://priory-of-sion.com/biblios/links/gebelin.pdf. The de Mellet original and translation is at http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Recherch ... les_Tarots. There is a print translation with extensive historical notes by J. Karlin, in Rhapsodies of the Bizarre, 2002. Karlin's idea of history tends to mean 1781 and after.

Etteilla, Manière de se récréer avec le jeu de cartes nommées tarots, Pour servir de premier Cahier a cet ouvrage, 1783, in French at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6 ... .f1.langEN.

Etteilla, How to amuse oneself with the deck cards named tarot, Serving as the second Cahier of this Work, c. 1785. Selections transcribed and translated by me at http://etteillastrumps.blogspot.com/ (but not the posts ending "...in the Etteilla tradition", which are something else.

Etteilla, How to amuse oneself with the deck cards named tarot, Serving as the third Cahier of this Work. Translated in full with supplements by me at http://thirdcahier.blogspot.com/, with links to a transcription of the original. This is the first of the Cahiers actually published, in 1783 (I suspect that the "1783" on the title page of the First Cahier is to be taken with a grain of salt. It is probably not the original edition, no matter what it says.)

Etteilla, Philosophie des Hautes Sciences, 1785. One section, on the 72 angels of God, I have transcribed, translated, and tried to explain at http://etteillasangelology.blogspot.com/

Etteilla, How to amuse oneself with the deck cards named tarot, Serving as the fourth Cahier of this Work, c. 1786?. Reprinted in Jaques Halbronn, Etteilla: L'Astrologie du Livre de Thot (1785) suivi par Recherches sur L'Histoire de l"Astrologie et du Tarot, par Jacques Halbronn, 1993. This is Etteilla's attempt to relate his tarot to astrology, chiefly by means of assigning the zodiac signs in order to cards 1-12 of his deck and the planets, in order, to cards 71-77, with 68-70 given to three other astrological signs. The rest I don't understand. I have not tried to translate any of it.

Claude Hugand-Jejalel (a follower of Etteilla), Faites-mieux, j'y consense, ou Les Instructions d'Isis, Divulgees par un Electeur de la Commune de Lyon, en l'annee 1789 (Do better, I agree, or The Instructions of Isis, Divulged by an Elector of the Commune of Lyon, in the year 1789). I have transcribed and translated a portion of this pamphlet, which explains the layout of the ancient "Temple of Memphis" as understood by Etteilla, at http://templeinmemphis.blogspot.com/

Eliphas Levi, Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual, 1896 translation by E. A. Waite of Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, Paris, 1854. Part One is at http://www.magicgatebg.com/Books/Dogma% ... 20Levi.pdf, and Part Two is at http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/magic/Dogm ... art_II.pdf. These are searchable, which makes him more readable. Try "tarot". Basis for what followed.

Papus, Tarot of the Bohemians. A kind of Hegel of the tarot, full of thesis/antithesis/synthesis propositions. 1892 translation by A. P. Morton at https://books.google.com/books?id=jmyuB ... ns&f=false. This seems to be the 1st edition, before Waite made revisions, as "Waite" is not found in the book selections there. My print copy is the 3rd edition, revised by Waite.
Also see https://books.google.com/books?id=rZsnl ... &q&f=false.

Papus, The Divinatory Tarot, trans. Cheryl Stockman. Selections online at https://books.google.com/books?id=sSy7w ... tory+tarot. this is mainly valuable for the list of synonyms and related words for all 78 cards as developed by d'Odoucet, one of the pupils of Etteilla, plus some translations of Etteilla (not cited as such) on divination, from his published works. I have copied these lists, combined them with another set by a different follower (but differentiated by font), for the majors at http://etteillastrumps.blogspot.com/, in the posts that end "...in the Etteilla tradition"; and the minors at http://neopythagoreanisminthetrot.blogspot.com/.

E. A. Waite, Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910, online at http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/pktar01.htm. Basic if you are interested in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.

Oswald Wirth, Tarot of the Magicians. Most recent edition with helpful forward by Mary Greer, 2012. This is a reissue, with some mistakes, of the 1980 translation put out by Wieser, which is more accurate (the 2012 did not repage some of the internal references which now had different page numbers) and has more of Wirth's illustrations. The 1980 is relatively inexpensive. The translation is sometimes inaccurate toward the end (and in the title!). So it should be checked against Le Tarot des Imagiers du Moyen Age, originally 1927, continually reprinted in French with re-engraved images of the majors. I have used Wirth in my blog on "Tarot and Kabbalah", starting with the post at http://latinsefiroth.blogspot.com/2015/ ... latin.html, to show his continuity with earlier sources.

Paul Foster Case, Introduction to the Study of the Tarot, at http://www.hermetics.org/pdf/intro.pdf; and The Book of Tokens, http://www.gwotton.ca/library/720-3.pdf. Basic texts of this Golden Dawn-based system with more French influence than some; it has many devotees where I live. I have used Case in my blog on "Tarot and Kabbalah", starting with the post at http://latinsefiroth.blogspot.com/2015/ ... latin.html, to show his continuity with earlier sources.

Additions, still Jan. 2:

On Depaulis, Le Tarot Révélé, 2013: I think the single most useful thing we, or maybe I, could do for beginners, and perhaps non-beginners, would be to do a translation of at least the first five chapters of this book (up to p. 70, at least a third of which is pictures), which we would all annotate with suggestions for further study. It is not very long, filled with pictures that can be skipped, but maps and tables that can't. However I am wondering about the ramifications as far as infringing on the territory of others, namely the author and the publisher. But it seems a shape to limit the access to this book.

Also, in Italian, there are three other books worthy of note:

Franco Pratesi, Giochi di carte nel Granducato di Toscana, 2015.

Franco Pratesi, Giochi di carte nella repubblica fiorentina, 2016. I know that this one at least in part reproduces essays that are in Italian on his website.

P. A. Rossi, I. Li Vigni, eds. Il Ludus Triumphorum o Tarot: carte de gioco o alfabeto del destino?, 2011. These are papers from a conference in Genoa in 2010. Paolo Rossi has an article collecting earliest references to playing cards and triumphs. There are a few we haven't looked at in detail. I will try to post and translate those passages.

Added Jan. 4: Biancastella Antonino, Morena Poltronieri, Ernesto Fazioli, Antichi giochi e Tarocchi a Bologna. 2014. Papers read at a Dec. 2014 conference in conjunction with an exhibition at the University of Bologna, with pictures of some items. Articles by Andrea Vitali ("Ludus triomphorum" al "Ludus Tarochorum"), one by Gerolomo Zorli on the game of tarocchino bolognese, Giovanni Pelosini on hermeticism and tarocchi, and several others. I regret to say I have not yet studied it in sufficient depth.


I hope you'll go on with this attempt...
http://www.sgdl-auteurs.org/alain-bouge ... Biographie

Re: Library East Wing sortiment ... a restart

8
Is there a choice to make?

Either, a presentation of Selected ressources with a necessary personnal comment - which is interesting for having a point of view from a valuable reader (your listing)
or
a listing of what is available - but without appreciations (Huck's listing)?

Maybe as the posts are under the authorship of the author of the post, both ways could be considered as correct.
http://www.sgdl-auteurs.org/alain-bouge ... Biographie

Re: Library East Wing sortiment ... a restart

9
I also see interest in Marcos Filesi publications.

We must have a lot of posts of his here
I think Marcos is one of our best essayists and researchers about Tarots ...I always read him with delight and respect. A main contributor...

He has a beautiful Blog
Image


TANNHAUSER CABARET
by
Marcos Méndez Filesi
http://www.mmfilesi.com/tcabaret/

An article of Marcos dated April 2016
Las barajas milanesas
http://www.mmfilesi.com/tcabaret/el-tar ... milanesas/


Los Trionfos del Tarot
http://www.mmfilesi.com/tcabaret/series/tarot-triunfos/
Barajas del Tarot
http://www.mmfilesi.com/tcabaret/series/tarot-triunfo
http://www.sgdl-auteurs.org/alain-bouge ... Biographie